Risk management plan – As you may have guessed correctly by now, the risk management plan comes as an input to every risk management process in our project that happens after it is created. As this document explains how risk management activities are to be carried out in our project, it is an indispensable resource. We will be using the following from the risk management plan:

Scope baseline – The scope baseline includes the Project Scope Statement along with any constraints & assumptions. As you might already know, wherever assumptions are involved, there are bound to be uncertainties and it is these uncertainties that we are looking for. Also, constraints can be a major source of risks. A Work Breakdown Structure is going to give us a detailed perspective of the project work that will be done including tasks and sub-tasks. By going through this WBS thoroughly we can uncover a lot of potential risk possibilities.

Cost management plan – The Estimating Costs and Determining Budgets process of Project Planning creates the Projects Cost Baseline or in other words the Project Budget. The approach used in managing the project costs can be a major source of risks. For ex: a project that is operating on a tight budget with little room for maneuvering has a great risk of cost overruns. On the other hand, if the project has good cost reserves planned already, then the risks go down accordingly.

Schedule management plan – The Develop Project Schedule process creates the Project Schedule. By understanding the Projects Schedule and the Schedule Management Plan will give us a good idea of whether the project is operating on tight deadlines or has any slack in terms of completion dates. As in the case of Projects Budget, projects operating on a tight schedule can have a great deal of risk in terms of schedule overruns.

Quality management plan – The approach to quality management in the project has a direct bearing on the project risks. A Project where a great deal of importance is given to quality related activities to produce a good quality work product usually has lower risks when compared to one that does not follow good quality practices. In cases where the quality or work done is compromised (for whatever reason it may be), risks are introduced. Poor Quality Standards is a major source of risks in many projects. If we address the Quality aspect of our project, we will be eliminating a good number of risks at its source.

Activity cost estimates – The Cost Estimates are created in the Estimating Costs process and these estimates can give us a good idea of the likely cost involved in all the scheduled project activities. This way we can identify if the project is in any danger of cost overruns.

Activity duration estimates – The activity duration estimates are created in the Estimate Activity Duration process. The quality and accuracy of the estimates can have a direct impact on the risks. If the estimate is accurate then the risks of schedule overruns are low whereas if the estimates are rough or ball-park then the chances of schedule slippages are pretty high which in turn means high risk.

Stakeholder register – The stakeholder register gives us details about the list of all people who have a stake in our project. We can use it to identify the high influence group of stakeholders and handle them accordingly. We can also use this document to invite all those important stakeholders to the risk related meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

EEF – We have learnt what these enterprise environmental factors are many times in this blog. The factors that are relevant in our identifying risks area are:

Commercial Databases

Public & Industry studies

OPA – The organizational process assets include files & data from previous projects. We can study what the actual risks were, the responses that we used and the actual outcomes of the responses. We can utilize this information to ensure that we do not commit the same mistakes as our predecessors. Looking at the lessons learned documents from previous similar projects would be a good idea too. Document Templates also come under this section.

Project doc – There are a whole bunch of other project related documents that can be sources of risks or risk related information. Some of them are:

If you see closely, the scope baseline was considered as a separate input entity just a few paragraphs ago and has been mentioned again as part of the general term “Baselines” along with the Cost and Schedule baseline. Also, the Schedule Management Plan & the Cost Management Plan were covered already as inputs in detail and their baselines are considered here. This should give you a fair idea of the fact that the golden triangle “Scope-Time-Cost” are the key sources of risks for the Project and need to be investigated & analyzed thoroughly in order to minimize risks and to enhance the chances of the Project’s Success.

Apart from all the above mentioned inputs, any other document or information related to the Project that can be a source of risk or that can provide insights that will help in project risk management can be considered as input to this process.